KITCHEN PARADISO

Only 24 sleeps until Christmas and there’s still so much to do to put the finishing touches to the new kitchen.  Sleep seems like a luxury when those hours could be put to much better use. 

Call it laziness or cost effectiveness but when our builders plastered the kitchen walls they decided not to remove the existing radiator to plaster over the fourth wall, claiming that the wall didn’t have enough defects to warrant a full skim.  Says who?

 

Not that many defects

So it was left to me to attempt a repair of the existing motorway crack network then sweep the evidence of my bodging under a layer of Deco Paradiso wallpaper.  Perhaps no 10 should consider the same as no doubt there’s no more space left under their rugs in which to hide away evidence of their crimes and misdemeanors. 

Before turning my hand to a bit of Paradiso papering, the uneven walls riddled with hairline cracks or dinks too small to fill needed to be covered with lining paper. 

 

Lining the wall horizontally

Lining paper helps to create a nice thick even layered surface on which to stick your wallpaper.  I’ve used a 1200 grade lining paper (Homebase) specially designed for anaglypta to act as my levelling agent.  Weirdly, the lining paper is stuck to the wall horizontally and I found this far more difficult to do than hanging paper vertically especially when up a ladder.

 

Bertie!  Now look what you've made me do

It’s no laughing matter when you’re stuck up a ladder trying to hang several metres of sticky paper and the cat chooses that moment to deposit the stinkiest poop in the litter tray round the corner causing a ripple in the fabric of my papering universe resulting in wonky joins.  Should’ve gone to Specsavers with a clothes peg on my nose!  Bertie - you stinky moggy!!!

 

All those cracks magically hidden away

Leave the lining paper to dry overnight then cover with a nice layer of your favourite wallpaper, in my case Deco Paradiso. 

 

Not easy to paper with radiator in situ

Leave to dry overnight then paint

Leave your Paradiso wall to dry overnight then cover with 2 coats of matt emulsion, remembering to use a smallish fluffy roller to avoid getting paint on new kitchen units or missing bits of the raised pattern.  

 

Trying not to splash anything

Now all that’s left to do is to finish the woodwork with some satinwood paint then cover the unsightly exposed copper pipes with chrome pipe-snaps and voila, kitchen finished.

Wallpaper - great for hiding defective unplastered walls

SOAKAWAYS

Men are from Mars, women from Venus and some tradespeople are from Disney as they’re always taking the mickey… 

Not that I’m complaining about ours as he’s doing a grand job digging what is called a ‘soakaway’ in the back garden but sometimes I fail to understand builder logic.  Why wasn’t this done earlier in the project before the monsoon season started?  I would have dug this out in July/August or after all the guttering on the extension was fitted.  This is definitely not the time to be doing anything outdoors.

 

Working in very damp conditions

Whilst I’ve been devoting time to painting up the extension, our garden has become a movie set piece for a remake of The Great Escape -  there are holes everywhere! 

Soakaways act as large drains enabling rainwater to be carried away from your house to soak away under the ground in a huge pit filled with what look like giant milk crates (also known as SUDS – sustainable urban drainage systems).

 

Soakaway crates

Very, very big in size

It appears you can’t connect your gutter downpipes to existing sewers or waterways but instead have to dispose of your own surface rainwater in the garden.  Current building regulations state you have to have a soakaway at least 5 metres away from your property which is essentially almost in the middle of our lawn.

 

Must be 5 metres away from the house

In by gone days, soakaway pits were either filled with stones/gravel or constructed like a honeycomb of bricks rather like a bee hive but in this modern age, plastic crates that are then covered in a special membrane are used. 

The membrane wraps around the crates to prevent any soil from trickling in and bunging up the works over time.

 

Crates wrapped in special membrane

These crates are very big so a pit almost as deep as a grave is dug.  The hole in our garden was so big I thought it could double up as an outdoor swimming pool and with this weather it wouldn’t take that long to fill!

 

Digging a pit for the crates

You're gonna need a deeper hole

Large brown pipes connected to your gutter downpipes then feed into the sunken crates.  More deep trenches across the lawn. 

 

Pipe running from the back of the house

To connect to the soakaway

Eventually after the muddy mess has dried out, the original grass turfs will be replaced on top of everything but I don’t expect to see a pristine, bowling green flat expanse when I look out the window.   After this little lot, our back lawn is never going to look quite the same again.

 

Not exactly properly replaced

Charlie Dimmock would definitely not approve!

SOFT FAUNA PAINT JOB

Whilst the freshly grouted tiles are drying in the kitchen, focus returns to the extension which is now ready for its final paint job.

 

Preparing to paint the extension walls

The tiled floor has now been finished and skirting board fitted all round. 

 

Tile drama resolved and floor finished

Interestingly, I noticed that our builder has used primed MDF skirting instead of timber skirting.  Not really an issue but I suspect that this may have been a cheaper option than a nice bit of pine.  As long as it paints up well and remains durable then that’s OK but something to bear in mind for your project – if you want premium materials (real timber) then make sure you clearly specify this and budget accordingly.

 

MDF or pine skirting?  Spot the difference

Our builder was kind enough to fit brackets so that our heavy Art Deco mirror could be hung on the feature wall.  Not the easiest mirror to hang but he’s done a fantastic job in getting it positioned right in the spot where we had our cardboard template.  Spot on!   Almost made me cry with delight when I saw it.

 

Cardboard mirror template to mark the spot

Art Deco mirror hung

Fast forward to a few hours later when the walls are getting the first coat of Dulux’s soft fauna 5 matt emulsion paint. 

 

Starting with the fiddly wall

This colour is my favourite retro shade.  It provides a good contrast to black furniture and always looks fresh, light and fashionable.

 

Working my way round the room

I’m tempted to use the same colour in a satin finish for the woodwork to add height to the room but as the rest of the house has white coloured skirting then probably best to keep consistent.

 

Beginning to come together

Looks great after just one coat.  You get a better sense of continuity between both rooms now that they’re both painted the same colour, they just seem to flow together to form one lovely large space.

Looking in from the kitchen

Both rooms now the same colour

TONS OF TILES

For months I’ve been dreaming of tiles, tons of tiles.  Wall tiles, floor tiles, metro tiles.  There are bargain tiles and there’s tiles that will cost you a month’s salary for a square metre.  Tiles that look like wood and tiles you can use both inside and outside.  Patterned tiles in a myriad of designs or colours.  So many to choose from both online and on the high street.  And therein lies the problem, too much choice. 

Eventually I bought the wall tiles for my kitchen having whittled the list of potential contenders down to these last four:

My top 4 tile choices

Top of my wish list was Lampas Peacock from Topps Tiles.  A luscious deep bluey green colour but needing a lusciously deep purse to pay for them.  Allow around £500 plus for 7 square metres.

 

Lampas Peacock - Topps Tiles

Running a close second and considerably cheaper at around £300 for 7 square metres was Crackle Glazed Peacock a metro sized tile from Tile Mountain.  Beautiful rich deep colour and likely to be purchased for the downstairs toilet refurbishment.

 

Crackle glazed peacock - Tile Mountain

Third place goes to Aurelia Kingfisher from Homebase.  Lighter in colour than the first two tile choices and flecked with black to add interest.  Often on a buy-one-get-one half price offer, bringing the price for 7 square metres down to a modest £262.50.

 

Aurelia Kingfisher - Homebase

And last but not least the Opal Emerald from Porcelain Superstore.  A beautiful jade green tile and very reasonably priced at £256.20 for 7 square metres.

 

Opal emerald - Porcelain Superstore

The prize for best kitchen wall tile has been awarded to Aurelia Kingfisher which co-ordinates very nicely with Dulux’s soft fauna 5 paint that I’ve used on the walls.  

How your tiles are to be placed on the wall is yet another decision dilemma.  Do you go for a standard brick pattern or the more complex and costlier herringbone effect?  Remember - the fancier the design, the higher the cost of tiling so what you desire and what you can afford may be poles apart.

 

Beautiful herringbone tiling

I asked Google ‘how high should my tiled area be? And got about a million different answers.  At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter if the tiles are only 4 high or if the entire wall is covered, it’s a matter of choice, budget and what might look best with the overall look of the kitchen that you’re trying to achieve.

 

How high should the tiles go?

As high as you want them

Tiled splashback 4 tiles high

In the end, I’ve decided to go 4 high and trim the top edge in polished chrome to co-ordinate with the sockets.  I feel that a painted border space at the top of the tiles frames the cabinets and adds an opportunity for the space to be used for other things such as hanging cooking utensils, cup hooks or rustic shelving.

 

Tiles topped with a polished chrome flat trim

Then there’s grout.  Boy, oh boy, yet another minefield to navigate.  Think about whether you want your grout to contrast or compliment your tile colour and don’t forget practicality when making your choice.  How many of us have struggled to scrub tomato splashes off white grouting in the kitchen?  It never looks quite the same afterwards.

 

Grouting colours - which to choose?

And so as the days slowly tick down to the festive season, the tiles are going up in the kitchen.  Here’s a sneaky peek of the un-grouted tiled kitchen splashbacks.

Tiling round the boxed pipes

Corner finished and ready for grouting

Tiled hob splashback